North Korea Human Rights Violations

2. Thesis Question and Statement

What caused Iran and North Korea to implement so many human rights violations on its own citizens, having absolutely no regards for humanity? For my thesis, I plan to write about the human rights violations in two of the most restricted countries in the world – Iran and North Korea. This international component to my thesis would be how the U.S. and rest of the world react to the violations and what is being done by the international scene. I will talk about Iran and its past and present history of human rights violations of those who have escaped from the political prison camps and I will talk about the Kim regime and its treatment of North Korean civilians. I will also include information about both countries’

nuclear weapons programs. My thesis is the U.S. and international system is taking more of a passive stance on human rights violations in North Korea and Iran because of both countries’ past histories with terrorism and threatens of mass destruction and nuclear weapons.
3. Research Questions
Although, we live in a seemingly better environment, with advanced technology, fewer diseases, and freedom of speech and movement – not everyone is privileged enough to experience this lifestyle such as those in North Korea and Iran. There still many people who are living in the dark, closed off from the world’s advancements. Confined with the Axis of Evil, people in North Korea and Iran are suffering and going through atrocious human rights violations because their ideologies and actions do not match the mottos of their countries. Nothing much can be done to help them out of the horrific situations. We see the U.S. and the international system’s attempts to stop these countries from committing human rights violations on their own people, but there is barely any change because of the lack of political will globally to push on these issues. For these states, there is not a high regard for human rights. Some research questions, I will be looking into is what happened in history to cause these two countries to treat their civilians this way – for Iran, I would be looking from the 1979 Iranian Revolution to the current 2015 Iranian deal. For North Korea, I would be looking from the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953 which divided the two Koreas to the current 2015 nuclear weapons program. What are Iran and North Korea’s reasons for having a nuclear weapons program? How do nuclear weapons make these countries different from other human rights violators?
4. Explanation of Interest
My interest in writing about North Korean human rights stems from the idea of the land of the forbidden. No one knows what goes on in North Korea because there is no access to the country. It is closed off from the world. However, we are able to know about the horrific human rights violations because of defectors who have escaped from the country. To add on to the international aspect of this thesis, I plan to expand my research on human rights violations in Iran as there were many political prisoners who have escaped and told their stories. Another reason for writing about North Korea and Iran is because of their involvement with terrorism and threatening with the mass destruction and nuclear weapons. I want to see how and why they used human rights violations to get what they want. I will also focus on how different the U.S. and the international system respond to the violations in the two different countries.
I am also very interested in human rights violations because I feel as if there is a split between some people and reality. Some people do not realize how fortunate they are. We see videos of people crying over getting the wrong iphone color, when there are some people who have never even seen a phone. There are some people who have so much money at their disposal, while some people have never been full. I really want to explore these aspects. The importance of my topic would be to mainly highlight how different and similar these two countries, which are considered the two “evilest” places according to the Bush administration.
d and it varies from guards and actual prisoners, even female ones.
7. Preliminary findings and conclusions:
Even though the violations are a known fact, the human rights violations in North Korea do not get as much attention for human rights violations.

This is partially due to how closed off and isolated the state is – information cannot enter or leave easily, as well as people having pre-conceived notions of the state. Some people do not even know about how North Korea treats its own civilians, all they know about is how ridiculous the Kim family is portrayed in the media and making fun of the state’s political and social position. Hollywood even made a movie “The Interview,” which was released in December of 2014 and it completely mocks the current situation of North Korea and Kim Jong-Un. A lot of the people who watched it thought it was hilarious. If North Korea is being viewed as just such a laughing stock, then no one would care about the deeper issues that are going on in the

country.
According to the Human Rights Watch’s World Report of 2013, the report clearly documents some of the issues regarding human rights in North Korea.

Some issues and violations include food shortages, inhumane treatment, torture, executions, and political prisoner camps. Prior to this report, few people were aware of the human rights violations in North Korea because it was not as highly publicized as other violations in other states, and simply because North Korea is such a closed off state. The civilians in North Korea are living, but they are living only to survive, not living to enjoy life. They are not living normal lives because a chance of a normal life was stripped away from them a long time ago and the grim fact is that they may never get a chance to experience what the rest of the world experiences. The North Koreans cannot even leave the state to visit their relatives in South Korea. They have no access to the new technologies and internet access that their South Korean counterparts have. More importantly, they have limited food and resources. They are put in a vulnerable situation because of what their leader tells them.

The establishment of the Commission on Inquiry in North Korea is the first step to trying to figure out a solution to the human rights violations in North Korea. Though, based upon the commission’s website, there does not seem to be anything substantial going on – only initial talks and conferences. After the realizing that North Korea has so many human

rights violations and after the struggle of deciding how to fix the issue, on November 19 of this 2014, the UN Human Rights Council has called on the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court.
In terms of Iran, as of June 2015 the annual review of human rights for Iran has been delayed due to U.S. talks with Iran about Iran’s nuclear program. According to the State Department, Iran is still implementing various human rights abuses. It has limited civil liberties and continues to execute its civilians at one of the world’s highest rates of executions. There have not any big improvements in human rights after Husan Rouhani became president. It is believed that Iran’s record of human rights violations has been related to its hope for an extensive nuclear program.
It is evident that both countries has a background of severe human rights abuses and the U.S. and the international system has been monitoring the situations in both countries. There have been new developments, but nothing majorly to completely rid of all the violations. This is because both countries need to cooperate with the international system in order to find a good solution.